Jazz Police - Fat Kid Wednesdays on Mondays at the Icehouse, August 20th & 27th

Fat Kid Wednesdays on Mondays at the Icehouse, August 20th & 27th

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Sunday, 19 August 2012

“The saxophonist, Michael Lewis, the bassist, Adam Linz, and the drummer, JT Bates, have that preternatural mutual responsiveness that comes from an instinctive sympathy… Their music suggests the influences of the crucial canon of modern jazz.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Fat Kid Wednesdays©Andrea Canter

They first came together about 18 years ago, and now it has been more than a decade since this trio has performed as Fat Kid Wednesdays. Despite their local ties (all grew up in Minnesota and continue to call the Twin Cities “home”), they may have their strongest following in France, where they record on the Nocturne Records label. Their appearance at the Stone in Manhattan three years ago upped their cachet in the U.S., Richard Brody reporting in The New Yorker that “their exhilarating performance…revealed both the depth of their individual artistry and the symbiotic wonder of their interplay.” Since the Clown Lounge in St Paul closed about two years ago, Fat Kids were seldom heard around the Twin Cities until the opening of the Icehouse in June. FKW drummer J.T. Bates is now booking Monday night music at the new south Minneapolis venue, reviving his Jazz Implosion series from the nights at the Clown. Fat Kids, which includes Bates, along with Adam Linz and Michael Lewis, will play the next two Mondays (August 20th and 27th) with two sets each night, starting at 9:30 pm.

Mike Lewis©Andrea Canter

Michael Lewis is best known around town as one of the area’s most creative sax players, lending his blowing skills to the acclaimed Happy Apple as well as FKW. Noted Richard Brody in The New Yorker, “Lewis’s dry, metallic tone on alto and tenor and the free melodic logic of his improvisations recalls the playing of Ornette Coleman…as well as the fragmentation of mid-sixties Sonny Rollins, the quizzical assertions of the great altoist John Tchicai, and even the visionary gospel rhapsodies of Albert Ayler… Lewis’s solos, digging from melody to wail, moving from a breathy, atonal whisper to a deep, swinging groove, have a vulnerable, confessional air.” Lewis has been increasingly visible in New York, performing at the Stone with Happy Apple as well as with FKW, and appearing on David Letterman in connection with his 2009 tour with Andrew Bird, on which he played electric bass.

Adam Linz©Andrea Canter

There would be few true fans of Twin Cities jazz who are not already familiar with Adam Linz. A Twin Cities native, Adam was initially attracted to bass “after hearing various rock and early hip hop records.” But it was his uncle, bassist Tom Hubbard, who introduced Adam to jazz. After graduating from Park Center High School in Brooklyn Center and bass studies with Peter Olson at MacPhail, Linz earned degrees in physics at Columbia University and in jazz studies at William Paterson University. Living on the East Coast in the mid to late 90s, he played with an ensemble dedicated to performing the music of Charles Mingus. He eventually returned to the Twin Cities, building his reputation as an adroit and innovative bassist with such groups as Gloryland Pony Cat, FKG, the Lease/Moriarty Quintet, and most recently with the Dave King Trucking Company. Over his career, he’s also appeared with Evan Parker, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, Dosh, Francois Tusques, Douglas Ewart, and Ten Thousand Things Theatre Company. Linz is an active jazz educator, having taught at MusicTech (now McNally Smith College), MARS, Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth (MITY), and Augsburg College, and is currently Jazz Coordinator at the MacPhail Center for Music.

J.T. Bates©Andrea Canter

J.T. Bates is one of the busiest drummers in the Twin Cities, on and off the bandstand. He was a member of Motion Poets, has played and recorded with Doug Little, and has worked with a variety of Latin, electronic, and experimental ensembles, including Low Blow and the Kelly Rossum Quartet. He also appears frequently on a late night gig at Barbette. Noted Richard Brody in The New Yorker, “In free rhythm, his shimmering cymbals recall Sunny Murray’s work with Ayler; the tom-tom groove is like the one Ed Blackwell got with Coleman; and, when he plays on an ethereally introverted modernistic piece, he sounds like a one-man Art Ensemble of Chicago, ready to use anything for the right sound—chopsticks, chains, his hands, and even the nub of a drumstick, which he rubs on cymbals to make them whisper as if butterflies were beating their wings upon them.”

The Icehouse is located at 2528 Nicollet Ave South. Cover $5, sets at 9:30 and 11:30 pm.

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